From everything I've read, the best thing that can be said about the game is the combat. The combat is supposedly fun and fluid, from what I hear, and testing out all the different skillsets/perks is actually pretty enjoyable, as long as you forget the fact that you can switch between any of them at will mid-combat with a free pause (so it's not really an RPG, in a sense). I've heard iffy things about the jetpack, but everybody seems to love the jumping thing. Can't remember what it's called though.

There's not really that much to be said about the game that's good that I've heard.

fox wrote:Hi,
the reviews I have read focused very much on the flaws, while saying little to nothing about the perks.
The game has its cons, alright. What about the pros?

Does any of you feel to write a review, trying to maintain a neutral point of view?
I promise to read it to the last word.

There is a reason none of the reviews focus on positives...

It's hard to mention something that doesn't exist. :/

Combat would be fun, if it had a way of regenerating health.
Combat could be tactical, if you could tell your followers to do anything useful.
Crafting could be neat, if they actually included interesting options.
Armor customization would be good, if you got sufficient control over it.
Character creation would be nice, if they had bothered to use nice models... We know they could, the Sims Characters are significantly more human than these.

@Silverware I think you are incredibly wrong when it comes to combat. Combat in ME:A actually works a little bit like the original Mass Effect, where health regeneration is not a default ability, but rather something that is gained through armor modification. So, there are important decisions to be made when it comes to armor crafting. I really think a lot of the criticism of this game is being over-hyped. Is it a 90/100 game? No, but it's at least a 70/100. Does it live up to its predecessors? Probably not. But does that mean it can't be enjoyable? No it doesn't.

masseffect7 wrote:@Silverware I think you are incredibly wrong when it comes to combat. Combat in ME:A actually works a little bit like the original Mass Effect, where health regeneration is not a default ability, but rather something that is gained through armor modification. So, there are important decisions to be made when it comes to armor crafting. I really think a lot of the criticism of this game is being over-hyped. Is it a 90/100 game? No, but it's at least a 70/100. Does it live up to its predecessors? Probably not. But does that mean it can't be enjoyable? No it doesn't.

No, at least out of combat one should have options to heal that aren't limited to "go find a healing box and hope you didnt use it all before".
At least one of these options should be given to you from the start.

*ALL* previous games had MediGel in some form, that you could collect and use to heal.
Seeing as this game doesn't, your companions can't die, but you can, and shields regen. One is pretty much forced to use the crappy cover system, and invest in maximum shields as quickly as possible.

Honestly I don't feel the game was over hyped, I saw a lot of shit about it, but mostly ignored it.

@Silver I actually prefer not having automatic health regeneration. It makes the combat more tense and interesting for me. How many hours have you played? For me it took a few hours to get used to this game because it is very different from past titles, especially ME2 and ME3. It seems that a lot of your problems are coming from growing pains. Also, making the comment that all previous games had MediGel is pretty meaningless. MediGel in the first game serves a very different purpose from the following 2. In ME there was only health regeneration if you added it to your armor through a modification. In ME2 there was full health regeneration, where in ME3 it was very limited. So, I really don't understand this criticism. Not having health regeneration has been a common fixture in the series from the beginning.

masseffect7 wrote:@Silver I actually prefer not having automatic health regeneration. It makes the combat more tense and interesting for me. How many hours have you played? For me it took a few hours to get used to this game because it is very different from past titles, especially ME2 and ME3. It seems that a lot of your problems are coming from growing pains. Also, making the comment that all previous games had MediGel is pretty meaningless. MediGel in the first game serves a very different purpose from the following 2. In ME there was only health regeneration if you added it to your armor through a modification. In ME2 there was full health regeneration, where in ME3 it was very limited. So, I really don't understand this criticism. Not having health regeneration has been a common fixture in the series from the beginning.

You don't understand not having a combat option for healing?

The series has treated medigel as other games treat medikits.
Then MEA goes and removes them without giving you an alternative.

I have been in several fights where I fire two or three shots then have to hide behind cover until my shields regenerate because I am too low health to fight and have no option to heal.
This is poor design. This goes against the idea of fast and fluid combat they have tried to push MEA into.

You cant have non-regenerating health without a way of healing at your own pace. And you CANNOT have fast and fluid combat without the ability to gain health back.
Either have regeneration, or medikits you can use as you need. Or give us slow methodical tactical combat.

MEA does none of these, and severely fucked up in doing so.

Also for the love of god, use line breaks in your text, walls of text are unreadable.

@Silverware If you are having so many problems with healing, I'd hypothesize that maybe you need to lower the difficulty level you are playing on until you get used to the game. I'm doing my first playthrough on normal difficulty and I'm not having any issues. I haven't tried the vanguard profile yet Dinosawer, but I am interested to see how it works. I thought that vanguard was the most powerful class in ME3 if you played it well. I think one of the reasons for the lack of health regen is the addition of the jet packs. I think combat would be pretty trivial for me if I could jump away, use medigel, and jump back in pretty quickly. At least now I have to get to certain locations in order to get healing, and those locations may be occupied by enemies. I wouldn't mind if there was no option for healing in combat, as I'd largely be fine without it.

masseffect7 wrote:@Silverware If you are having so many problems with healing, I'd hypothesize that maybe you need to lower the difficulty level you are playing on until you get used to the game. I'm doing my first playthrough on normal difficulty and I'm not having any issues. I haven't tried the vanguard profile yet Dinosawer, but I am interested to see how it works. I thought that vanguard was the most powerful class in ME3 if you played it well. I think one of the reasons for the lack of health regen is the addition of the jet packs. I think combat would be pretty trivial for me if I could jump away, use medigel, and jump back in pretty quickly. At least now I have to get to certain locations in order to get healing, and those locations may be occupied by enemies. I wouldn't mind if there was no option for healing in combat, as I'd largely be fine without it.

I haven't been having issues with beating fights.

I simply take offense to a system that doesn't match the type of combat that EA wanted to push with MEA.
I hate that I have to hide in cover when my health is low and my shield breaks, rather than being able to heal and do a quick push to a better position.

My issues with the game are not from a difficulty perspective.
This is just poor game design.

I mean, has anyone played a game in the last ten years where you don't have either regenerating health, or an option to use healing items as you move? There is a reason the older system died out.

If you allow players to take healing items with them, then they dont have to wander through large areas of map that they have cleared out looking for health items.
If you regenerate health while in cover, you allow the player to do more reckless and aggressive actions.

And with the new combat features, such as hovering, MEA is clearly trying to make players play more aggressively.
Likely to make up for the shitty AI and controls on your allies.

But they forgot to include a system to allow people to use health in combat.
And its frakking annoying in pretty much all fights.

Silverware wrote:
I mean, has anyone played a game in the last ten years where you don't have either regenerating health, or an option to use healing items as you move? There is a reason the older system died out.

Silverware wrote:
I mean, has anyone played a game in the last ten years where you don't have either regenerating health, or an option to use healing items as you move? There is a reason the older system died out.

DOOM

D O O M

Please don't take my advice. You will wind up in jail if you do.
For some reason, I feel obliged to display how many people have talked in IRC over the past 2 hours:

Silverware wrote:
I mean, has anyone played a game in the last ten years where you don't have either regenerating health, or an option to use healing items as you move? There is a reason the older system died out.

DOOM

In DOOM every opponent is a walking, homing, snarling medkit

But to list games like that: ArmA 3, because obviously it doesn't, it's not a twitch shooter; same with Red Orchestra. L4D requires you to halt to patch up, and it works well because it builds on pacing and tension. Receiver works on a single-hitpoint system because it's a small single-seat-beat game that you have to restart with each death. A series of RPGs like Risen have you rummage around in your inventory for a potion because healing is not part of combat in order to make it more unforgiving and less drawn out.

It's not a system that is supposed to be abandoned entirely, it can serve a purpose. Does it serve gameplay in ME:A though? Probably not, from what I've seen. Though my gripe would probably be more on the level of the bullet sponge enemies, something I really abhor. I prefer the high damage gameplay style if it's supposed to be snappy and fast.